Predicting Academic Success in a Graduate Nursing Program: A Pilot Study

Statement of Problem: The rising demand for advanced practice nurses has created a demand in graduate nursing programs with limited capacities. Cognitive variables such as GPA, GRE, and nursing experience have been explored as predictors of academic success. Intuition, a non-cognitive variable, also plays an important part of the nursing process (McEwan & Goldenberg 1999). There are no prior studies that examined intuition and/or years of clinical experience predicting academic success in graduate nursing school that have been published. Sources of Data: Data were collected using a convenience sample of all nursing students currently enrolled in a Master’s in Nursing Program at California State University, San Marcos. Students completed an online survey that included demographic data and The Smith (2007) 18-Item Intuition Instrument. Conclusions Reached: In this pilot study with an alpha level .20, the independent variables, high intuition score (p=.185) and years of experience as a RN (p=.031) were statistically significant predictors of the dependent variable, cumulative GPA.